building a sandblasting box

[goincrzy]

Anyone build there own sandblasting cabinet Im thinking of building a nice big one just cause the price for a nice metal one is just toooo much money for me. Im thinking of building the cabinet basically just like a big box with a big door on the front with a window and hole for the gloves..I thinking of using one of those pressurized blasters with a deadman valve, anyone else done this yet? Im just wondering how it works out for you, currently i have a large sandblasting cabinet from HF but it actually still to small for some stuff..Im in a desperate need for something better.. I only have a 30gallon 5max 1.7 running hp compressor too. it works ok for my cabinet but will this work ok for a pressurized blaster? THanks if anyone can i'd love to see some pics.....

[SCOTTRODS]

Anyone build there own sandblasting cabinet Im thinking of building a nice big one just cause the price for a nice metal one is just toooo much money for me. Im thinking of building the cabinet basically just like a big box with a big door on the front with a window and hole for the gloves..I thinking of using one of those pressurized blasters with a deadman valve, anyone else done this yet? Im just wondering how it works out for you, currently i have a large sandblasting cabinet from HF but it actually still to small for some stuff..Im in a desperate need for something better.. I only have a 30gallon 5max 1.7 running hp compressor too. it works ok for my cabinet but will this work ok for a pressurized blaster? THanks if anyone can i'd love to see some pics.....

Funny you should mention that. I have a huge start for a blasting set-up out in the back yard right now. Picked it up out in front of a business that was throwing it away. It's a large "vent hood" for installation over a plating tank or what have you. For a PC board manufacturing place. It's made of 1/2" thick PVC sheet, and looks like I could turn it upside down, and it would make a simple cabinet start. I still need legs for it, and I need the Front, and the top for it. It will hold a motorcycle frame easily. It's Pretty darned large. I should take pictures huh. May make the front and top out of sheetmetal, and make it fold up in front only. Making the whole front of it hinge open at the bottom of the piece, so I can replace gloves and glass easily. It's over 6.5' long, 44" deep, and almost 40" tall for blasting room. With a huge hopper shape (when turned upside down).

Free.

I just went out and took one pic so you can see my parts for this build. Impressive stuff for the price.

[goincrzy]

holy c r a p man, some people have all the luck!! That is awesome, turning the big top piece upside down actually would look like one of those industrial cabinets that cost thousands. I cant believe you got that for free! What your planning on doing about the whole front hinging is exactly what i was thinking of doing, this way you can load up large items in it very easily..Good luck with that build and post some pics when you finish it up...

[SCOTTRODS]

holy c r a p man, some people have all the luck!! That is awesome, turning the big top piece upside down actually would look like one of those industrial cabinets that cost thousands. I cant believe you got that for free! What your planning on doing about the whole front hinging is exactly what i was thinking of doing, this way you can load up large items in it very easily..Good luck with that build and post some pics when you finish it up...

Will Do. It looks pretty straight forward doesn't it? I'll probably have to cut 4 inches off the bottom(which will actually be the top when I'm done) to make it hold media inside better. There are board slots all around it. But Making a Lid and door, is basically alll I have to do other them put legs on.

I may actually use this one indoors too. I'll have to see how that works out though. It is kinda big for the indoor thing.... but To reduce moisture from humidity, it may be necessary. I'll watch and see if they toss any more of these hoods out too. I could make 2. One inside, and one outside.

[Zigeuner]

Assuming that the items that you would want to bead blast are not overly large, the H.F. Blast cabinet is a good choice. I've had one for more than ten years that I got as a demo for $150. I've made a few changes: I added a Snap-on blast gun which has tungsten carbide inner and outer tips as well as a tempered glass window with a replaceable polycarbonate sheet. I also modified the glove mounts to permit more arm room and also so that I could easily mount the $5.00 H.F. blasting gloves.

I also installed three CFL lamps with glass covers to potect them. I use a vintage Cyclone Brand dust collector to keep the field clear when I'm working. It is a real performer. It holds 50 pounds of whatever media you are using. I use med. fine glass beads but i've used walnut shells and soda in the past. It's a lot of work to change media, though, so I just use glass beads nowdays.

With the proper media, your metal will be on its way to a nice powdercoat job. It's really amazing how well a blast cabinet works. By the way, do you intend to use real sand? I have a separate Blast Brand pressurized unit for that. I use it outside with a hood and I don't try to recapture the sand. Sand would be entirely too harsh for anything that I would use the cabinet for.

You could easily build a cabinet with some 16 ga. sheet metal but even that is not cheap anymore. It cost me $300 for all of the metal to build my 2 X 4 X 6' oven.

An important factor is the size of the air compressor that is used to drive the cabinet. I tried small ones and they just gave out. I finally went to an 80 gallon unit with a true 5 hp. motor. It puts out 21 SCFM at 90 psi and it's about the smallest I could use without having it run all of the time. Those aren't cheap anymore, either.

Good luck.

Here is a picture of my blast cabinet ad dust collector. I also use the collector for woodwork.

[SCOTTRODS]

No "play sand" here.... I only use media that's non-silica based. Glass bead is the preferred, but I had a Supplier talk me into some Garnet last time around,.... I haven't used it up yet, but I will either go AO or back to glass bead next round.

[goincrzy]

Assuming that the items that you would want to bead blast are not overly large, the H.F. Blast cabinet is a good choice. I've had one for more than ten years that I got as a demo for $150. I've made a few changes: I added a Snap-on blast gun which has tungsten carbide inner and outer tips as well as a tempered glass window with a replaceable polycarbonate sheet. I also modified the glove mounts to permit more arm room and also so that I could easily mount the $5.00 H.F. blasting gloves.

I also installed three CFL lamps with glass covers to potect them. I use a vintage Cyclone Brand dust collector to keep the field clear when I'm working. It is a real performer. It holds 50 pounds of whatever media you are using. I use med. fine glass beads but i've used walnut shells and soda in the past. It's a lot of work to change media, though, so I just use glass beads nowdays.

With the proper media, your metal will be on its way to a nice powdercoat job. It's really amazing how well a blast cabinet works. By the way, do you intend to use real sand? I have a separate Blast Brand pressurized unit for that. I use it outside with a hood and I don't try to recapture the sand. Sand would be entirely too harsh for anything that I would use the cabinet for.

You could easily build a cabinet with some 16 ga. sheet metal but even that is not cheap anymore. It cost me $300 for all of the metal to build my 2 X 4 X 6' oven.

An important factor is the size of the air compressor that is used to drive the cabinet. I tried small ones and they just gave out. I finally went to an 80 gallon unit with a true 5 hp. motor. It puts out 21 SCFM at 90 psi and it's about the smallest I could use without having it run all of the time. Those aren't cheap anymore, either.

Good luck.

Here is a picture of my blast cabinet ad dust collector. I also use the collector for woodwork.

Thanks for the write up! That actually is the cabinet that i have now the problem is, it is just not big enough for me... I had some 20" rims to do from a guy that could of brought me alot of work. Make a long story short, i had to give them back cause i couldnt blast them to clean them. I felt bad and was upset that i couldnt do them.... So anyways thats what started me on the job of building a "BIG" blast cabinet.... I got it built and its almost done just installed the glass yesterday. Hopefully the gloves and rings will be here today so i can start using it.... I'll get some pics up as soon as its done, I made mine big enough that you could stick a whole Rear differential in it.. I made it so the top opens and also the front will open up too for easy loading of heavy items. I made the cabinet out of wood and also funneled the bottom so it can be used as a siphon cabinet as well as good spot to use my pressure blaster..... I just hope it works as well as im hoping it will! I cant see why it wouldnt, I sanded the inside so its really smooth and with the heavy paint i used it actually pretty slippey on the inside.. Got a few more days and then well see how it works........... I dont ever wanna have to eat that "Humble pie" again!! LOL!!

[Zigeuner]

It's good to have a larger cabinet, for sure. I really don't ever have anything that large to blast. I've sandblasted motorcycle frames but I have a pressurized 75 pound unit for that sort of thing and I do it outside.

I recently discovered copper slag media. It's relatively inexpensive and doesn't raise much dust. It's ground up material left over from the copper smelting process. It's rather inexpensive, too, so it's a good choice if you want to blast something like larger wheels outside and not worry about recovering it. It works well in my cabinet. You can get a 100 pound sack of it for around $9.00.

The only thing that needs to be done if you try it is to screen it before you put it into your cabinet. It's not as uniform as glass beads or other media. A Kitchen-type flour screen will remove the larger chunks.

If you use regular media, it's important to have something to remove the dust. The unit that I have sits on a 55 gallon drum and does an excellent job of keping the cabinet clear. Any large particles drop into the bottom of the drum while the fines stay in the cloth exhaust bag. The unit has only one moving part, a 2 hp 220 VAC 3,450 prm Baldor vertical mount motor with a large turbine blade on the shaft. It's a real big sucker! LOL

For a larger cabinet the commercial units use what is called a "bag house". It's a separate cabinet full of hanging cloth filters. Of course, we're talking bout a setup with a really big compressor at that point, one with say, an 120 gallon gallon tank with a 10 hp three phase motor. This is not for the faint of heart. LOL.

Good luck.

[goincrzy]

Here is a couple pics of the new cabinet...... Not fully done yet but getting really close! this took me longer then i thought it would of but i have been taking my time......... HAHAHA!!

[goincrzy]

heres some more......................